Switzerland and Vietnam to increase cooperation in labour and employment matters

Bern, 23.06.2020 - On 23 June 2020, under the leadership of the head of the Labour Directorate, Boris Zürcher, SECO held a meeting with Vietnam’s Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs (MOLISA). The video conference focused on labour market policy measures in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, and concluded with both parties signing a roadmap to increase cooperation in labour and employment matters.

MOLISA requested this exchange to discuss the extraordinary effects the COVID-19 pandemic is having on the world of work. In the conference call, Switzerland spoke in particular about the measures taken to preserve jobs, safeguard wages and secure the liquidity of companies. Switzerland also stressed the important role social partners have played in rapidly and effectively reacting to the COVID-19 pandemic’s effects on the economy and society, and underlined the importance of short-time working compensation. Both sides agree that multilateral cooperation will be vital to the economy’s rapid and sustainable recovery.

At the end of the conference, Boris Zürcher and Vietnamese Deputy Minister Nguyen Thi Ha signed a roadmap to increase bilateral cooperation in labour and employment matters, in particular in the areas of social partnerships, unemployment insurance and work conditions. The two countries also plan to increase cooperation in the transposition of relevant conventions of the International Labour Organization into national law. Signing this roadmap represents a milestone in the long-term, bilateral cooperation between Switzerland and Vietnam in this area, which first began in 2011 with a Memorandum of Understanding.


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State Secretariat for Economic Affairs
http://www.seco.admin.ch

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